Opening Day, August 2012

I have thought about and awaited my first ‘opening day’ in Orange for eight long months. I knew that when the day finally came I would talk about change, because ‘change’ is in the very air we breathe right now. But, what to say?

I grew up with my father’s voice in my ear, and his wisdom has always served me well. Whether it was a high school algebra test or field hockey game, or later in life, a tricky relationship or a financial crisis, “You want it to turn out better?” he’d say, “Change something. Nothing gets better by accident.”

On the other hand, I also recall having a conversation with a former colleague, who has since passed away.   I was trying to convince him to introduce some contemporary chapter books into the curriculum.   At the conclusion of the conversation, he simply said, “Not everyone likes change, you know. Some people go on vacation every year to the same cottage on the same lake and always order the lime rickey at the same ice cream stand.” 

It brought me up short and caused me to appreciate the paradox of change. In the end, however, it’s always my father’s voice in my head; and while I truly appreciated what this teacher said, I often wondered if routine comes at too great a price. Sometimes, change comes very hard to us because we over-estimate the value of what we have, and we under-estimate the greatness of what we might have … should we be agreeable to change.
 
It’s that ‘potential greatness’ that I want to emphasize as we begin the new school year!

So, what are the changes a foot in Orange? First of all, not one single change has been made ‘simply for the sake of change.’  Everything we’re doing has a well-thought out ‘rationale.’ With the exception of the implementation of our new math curriculum, Math Expressions, none of the changes is huge or demanding.  And, even considering the implementation of our new math curriculum, none of them is beyond our capacity!

As we face these changes together, I’m hoping we will always consider whether or not the change requires planning and effort … or simply requires open mindedness.  I’m hoping we will not throw all the changes into the same basket.  

As you’ve already noticed, we have many new people in our buildings.   We chose these people and invited them to join us.   Each deserves our warmest welcome to the school community.   Please extend a hand in community spirit whenever you can.   Be generous with your friendship and collegiality.   This kind of change does not really take effort on our part; it takes simple open-mindedness.

We have made a change in our website and switched from CMS, which was rather ‘static,’ to a new district webpage provider, Finalsite, which is dynamic.  In the process, we have gained a great number of features.   Our visitors can sign up for rss feeds and alerts. The new site has ‘virtual backpacks’ for school and community notices.   The directory is cleaner.   The calendar will be reliable.   The ‘Directions’ tab takes you to Google maps.   This change to Finalsite will require an adjustment on everyone’s part, but this is NOT a new initiative. The heavy lifting has already been done; and this change requires open-mindedness.

My hope is that our teachers will have their webpages up and running as soon as possible. The dream for the webpage is that it becomes the first place our community goes for the information.   The calendar will be updated daily!   You will be able to depend on it!   If we do our part, and the webpage does its job, we’ll save paper and photocopying (making us greener!) and a great deal of time.
 
Other changes we’ve made include the purchase and implementation of new ‘suite of SRBI’ intervention tools to support our struggling learners.  Most of these tools are Internet-based and students will be able to access them in 21st Century after-school programming (if they are participants) or at home.  

This coming year, we’ll need to rewrite our Teacher Evaluation Plan to meet the new State legislation. We also need to complete our State-mandated Safe Schools Plans.   We need deeply committed and interested members of our community for the District’s Long-Range Planning Committee.   These changes will take time, effort, and thought.  If you are interested in these kinds of community leadership opportunities, they are open to you.   Please call your school and apply.

Finally, I want to mention the district’s only three goals for the year.   The first, as I mentioned, is the implementation of Math Expressions!  It will take time and our steadfast energy, enthusiasm, and effort.  Our Specials teachers have been given equally weighty and significant curriculum initiatives to work on.   Some are developing common assessments because that practice makes great sense, but also in anticipation of the new State teacher evaluation model.  Others are working on the Student Success Plans for 6th graders.  Some are working on Accelerated Reader.
 
Before, I introduce the second and third goals, I want to mention that our Administrative-level discussions about CMT testing results have been healthy and worthwhile.   Our kids do great!   They show growth over time, and they are well above the state averages.   Often, about 50% of them are in the Advanced band – not 'Goal', but 'Advanced!'   However, when we compare ourselves to other schools in our DRG, we do not often enough fall into the top half of the DRG.  

We do NOT need to do an in-depth study of this.   We do NOT need to make significant changes in curriculum or instructional strategies.   Our curriculum and our instruction are already excellent.   We DO, however, need to do two things better… and these two things are the next two goals on the list.

Our second goal is the protection of instructional time. Philosophically, the Orange School District needs to believe that the teacher’s time in the classroom, with the students, is sacrosanct!   And, then, we need to act according to that belief.   If there was one resounding message I heard over and over again from teachers last year, it was this: “I don’t have enough time!”

Thus, teachers will no longer be routinely pulled from their classrooms for curriculum writing or for meetings.   Our students are not better off in the hands of a substitute, and what an incorrect message we send when we act as if the common practice of replacing teachers with subs is 'the same'!  Except in the case of emergencies, we will try to protect the teachers from phone calls and unexpected visitors. (The principals, by the way, aren’t considered visitors!)

The principals were given the charge to protect instructional time through careful scheduling over the summer and, now that school has started, through ‘buffering.’   It will be their jobs to protect classroom instruction from external interruptions.   Within the classroom, the protection of instructional time will be the responsibility of the teachers, by focusing on what’s important. Our shared goal will be that we will rarely sacrifice core curriculum time, and when we do, we will do it intentionally and with planning.

And, thus, the final ‘change’ I am going to mention is significant, but will take only a few minutes a day. It’s another one of those changes that is more about ‘open-mindedness’ than effort.  I’m asking that before each lesson, the teachers write the ‘target,’ or lesson objective, on the board or post it where students can see it.   This is as simple as writing out a list of Saturday chores for your family and posting it on the refrigerator.  This target, or ‘objective, is simply a focus for the lesson, written in ‘kid-friendly language.’   It gives the learning purpose and structure in the students’ minds.

I have been in classrooms and observed first graders whose attention has wandered off.  I have seen them, a moment or two later, refocus themselves by looking at the right spot on the chart paper and seeing in very simple words or even pictures, what it is they should be doing, and then getting back to work.  Just as the ‘list’ gives Saturday morning structure, so does the ‘target’ give classroom learning structure.  

Equally important, this ‘target’ or ‘focus’ will help us protect our precious instructional time because when something isn’t on the list, or we can’t find a worthwhile curriculum target or objective to go along with it, we tend to do less of it.  I am not suggesting that our teachers will give up precious ‘teachable moments’ when they occur; I asking simply that they provide their students with an ‘agenda item’ to guide their learning.

Thus, with all of the ‘change’ bursting out around us, I’m asking that all of us distinguish the deep systemic changes from simple changes which require only a little thought and an open mind.  Our school-based goals for the year are: 1. Implementing the Math Expressions, and the curriculum equivalent for our specialists; 2. Protecting instructional time; and 3. Posting our objective or target in kid-speak.
 
This is an excellent school community with quality teachers, the purest motivations, and very big hearts.   I have no doubt in our capacity for change.

And with that, your very proud and privileged Superintendent, is thrilled to open the 2012-2013 school year!

Lynn